News Archives

Sunday

Sent on their way with armfuls of good advice — including best-selling historian David McCullough’s suggestion that “however little television you watch, watch less” — 387 Bates College students made the transition from seniors to alumni at the college’s 140th Commencement, on May 28.

Friday

Four honorary degree recipients will speak at the 140th Commencement at Bates on May 28. They are Shakespearean scholar and cultural critic Marjorie Garber, AIDS researcher David Ho, historian David McCullough and choreographer Mark Morris. The 10 a.m. commencement ceremony takes place on the historic quad in front of Coram Library.

Friday

A year ago, Bates College senior Keelin Godsey set the NCAA Division III Outdoor Track & Field Championships record in the women’s hammer throw, at 195 feet and 4 inches. On Friday at Benedictine University, Godsey’s hammer traveled far beyond that mark all day long, en route to winning a second straight NCAA championship in his best event.

Tuesday

The past retains its power to surprise today’s students, as Alison Vander Zanden ’06 learned during the winter. In a research project for the course “Sociology of Gender,” taught by professor Emily Kane, Vander Zanden was the latest student to delve into the regulatory “Bates Blue Books” and advice booklets that prescribed the limits of student life at the college.

Tuesday

Bates College, which last fall contracted to buy all its electricity from renewable sources, has taken another step toward environmental sustainability with an arrangement to heat some of its student residences with cleaner-burning biofuel. In late March, Bates started heating 12 residential houses on Frye Street with so-called B5, a blend of petroleum heating oil with 5 percent biofuel made from soy or canola oil.

Friday

Two Bates students are among 30 students nationwide recognized for their activism by Young America’s Foundation, a conservative outreach organization. Nate Walton ’08 of Marblehead, Mass., and Melissa Simones ’06 of Greene were honored in April as members of the foundation’s Club 100. A campus activist rewards program, Club 100 gives points to members based on outreach activities such as bringing speakers to campus and raising money for their programs.

Wednesday

The environmental legacy of the late U.S. Sen. Edmund Muskie ’36, who was dubbed “Mr. Clean” for spearheading clean water and air laws in the 1960s and 1970s, found its way into a Supreme Court ruling May 15.

Tuesday

Colin Woodard, an award-winning journalist for The Christian Science Monitor and The Chronicle for Higher Education, will give a talk titled “The Lobster Coast: The Past, Present and Future of Coastal Maine” at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, May 18, in the Keck Classroom (G52), Pettengill Hall, Bates College. The public is invited to attend this talk, sponsored by the Department of History, free of charge.

Saturday

The Bates College Harward Center for Community Partnerships, in coordination with the college’s Student Volunteer Fellows, will hold a Community Partnerships Day from 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. Friday, May 12.